Girl Geekette

Although it might not have the bad reputation yet that a computer virus has, in many instances, Adware and Spyware can be worse than a virus. In many cases, it can even be harder to get rid of than a virus is.

For example, lets say you use a search engine on the internet to search for ‘little red Corvette”, Spyware can take this information and use your internet connection to report it back to its server than you are looking for “little red Corvette”. Once this information is sent to its server (using the bandwidth of your internet connection), the server might decide to give you “pop-ups” every time you open your browser of little red Corvette accessories. Maybe the Spyware and Adware goes so far as to make it so every time you open up a new web browser page, a company you have never heard of is displayed in the browser window. Even if you try to change your home page or start page in the browser, no matter what you set your start page it, somehow it is overridden by the page that the Spyware and Adware set it to be.

- Spyware itself is defined as any software that gathers information on a user covertly without his or her knowledge or permission. It can take information from a computer about a users internet connection, hardware installed, programs installed, surfing habits and history or other statistics and /or information., Next, it could use the computer’s internet connection to report these statistics back to a third party. This type of information might be used for advertising purposes, or even sold to other companies.

Also, a more dangerous form of Spyware can be sold as programs that are used to record keystrokes, “Snoop” on significant others, children or co-workers, etc. It can record histories, credit card information, passwords, chats, even take screenshots of what your desktop has on it at various times. Then, it can use your internet connection information and also report it back to a third-party. This can be very dangerous to a person’s security and privacy.

- Adware is a form of Spyware that can use the information gathered to produce advertisements on the computer. These advertisements can come in various forms such as web browsers that pop open or “pop-ups”, “Favorites” in a web browser being set and the links cannot be removed permanently, or even “Home” or “start” pages on a browser being permanently changed to where it cannot be removed. More times than not, every time you see one of these ads, someone is getting paid for every ad that displays on your computer.

- Browser hijackers are programs that will redirect your web browser to a page that the program has told it to go to. This type of Spyware or Adware will change your “Start” or “Homepage” and changing it to another page that you cannot seem to get rid of. While this type of Spyware or Adware is not as big of a security threat that others can be, it can definitely be annoying. No matter how many times you go to “Internet Options” and change the start page to what you want it to be, this kind of Spyware and Adware will always seem to change it back – either when the web browser is closed and then re-opened or when the computer itself is rebooted. All these times, when the webpage displays that the browser hijacker is forcing it to display, keep in mind someone else is getting paid because you ‘viewed’ that page of their website.

- DNS redirectors work with your web browser and your Domain Name server numbers for your internet connection. DNS numbers itself are good. To surf the web, these numbers are given to your computer (usually from your Internet Service Provider – ISP for short- when you connect to the internet). DNS numbers normally take the name or address you type into your web browser and translate this to a number the web browser can use to find the website you want to go to on the web. This type of Spyware and Adware – DNS Redirectors – will take whatever address you type into your web browser, redirect it back to the companies own server (reporting what your surfing habits are and what pages you visit) and then send you on your way to the website you want to go to. This information, left on the Spyware and Adware company’s servers can be gathered as statistics and sold or used in combination with other types of Spyware and Adware such as pop-ups tailored to places and keywords of websites you have been visiting.

-Dialers are another type of Spyware and Adware. These programs will sometimes force in internet connection to become disabled and at the same time, it might use a phone line connected to the modem in a computer to dial long distance and 1-900 numbers. True, these programs are not as damaging to the computer itself as some Spyware and Adware can be, but these programs can cost a person a fortune in phone bills while not even knowing what is going on!

Of course, Spyware and Adware go deeper than this. This is just an example of what it is, how it works, and how it can affect you.